


To Dust We Shall Return

by buzzbuzz34



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: F/M, Growing Up Together, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2017-02-08
Packaged: 2018-09-16 12:40:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9272219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buzzbuzz34/pseuds/buzzbuzz34
Summary: Before Nelka Brosca became a Grey Warden, she was just another casteless dwarf in Dust Town.  This is the story of how she and Leske met, became partners in crime, and eventually joined up with the Carta.  They start off as kids just trying to make their way before becoming adults who want to forge their own path; but Dust Town has no escape.





	1. A Bad Thief

It had been a day neither good nor bad, which was about as much as one could expect living in Dust Town.  Begging and scavenging wasn’t exactly the most lucrative of positions, but coming out two coppers ahead for the day was practically a miracle. 

Nelka had the two coins tucked securely in her pocket as she walked back through the streets to get home.  Most of the castes still didn’t pay her a bit of mind, but some had enough compassion to at least not spit on the little girl sitting in the dirt.

The guards watched her as she reentered Dust Town as if grateful to see her return to her pen where she belonged.  Immediately her nose met with the usual smells; urine, trash, sickness.  She barely even noticed them. 

The streets got a little bit busier as she neared the main area, the closest thing to a square that Dust Town was allowed.  Not that they were permitted to congregate lest they got ideas. 

But with the congestion, Nelka didn’t initially think of it when someone bumped against her.  A few steps later, though, she stopped in her tracks.  Riffling through her pockets, she let out a growl. 

Somebody stole her coins.

She charged back through the crowd to find the thief.  Not that she really knew what he looked like, but she would find him.  She had to.  That was all the money they had for food for the next few days. 

Once the crowd dissipated somewhat a short ways from the square, she noticed a boy not much older than herself scampering along the street, eyes darting around him wildly.  When he latched onto her gaze, he jumped and sped up in the direction away from her.

That was enough.  Nelka sprinted ahead of him and stopped right in front of him, giving him no place to go with a wall on one side and pedestrians on the other.  She held out her hand.

“Give them back.”

“Give what back?”

“You know what you did.  The coins.  Give them.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  He shrugged, trying to look nonchalant.  But the way his eyes kept moving, looking for a way out, gave him away. 

“I’m not going to ask nicely again.”

“Oh come on, you’re just a little girl.” 

“And you’re just a scared little boy.”

“So?”

“I want my coins.”

“I-”

Before he could finish turning to try and run back the way he came, Nelka punched him square across the face and sent him to the ground. 

“Ow!”  They cried in unison, the thief struggling to get up and Nelka examining her hand to make sure she hadn’t hurt it too badly.  Throwing a punch always hurt more than she expected it to. 

Nelka knelt down beside the thief and rummaged his pockets as he protested but didn’t stop her.  His pockets were almost entirely empty, save for two copper coins, which she took.

With her quest complete, Nelka stood and made to leave, but her small conscience stopped her and she turned back.  Then she tossed a coin to the boy who was barely sitting up. 

“What?”  He asked, confused, as he grabbed the coin.

Nelka shrugged before turning and disappearing into the crowd. 

She wasn’t entirely sure why she gave the kid one of her hard earned coins.  Maybe it was because she knew how hard it was out on the streets?  Maybe she respected him a bit for actually managing to pick pocket her?  She didn’t know for sure and, regardless, it was too late to think on it further. 

Before stepping inside her home, Nelka took a deep breath.  This wasn’t going to be pretty. 

Nelka’s sister, Rica, immediately met her eyes.  A small shake of her head indicated that it was a bad day. 

“Who is that?  Hopefully one of my useless daughters accomplished something today,” Kalah screeched, barely looking up from where she sat as Nelka entered the room. 

“Hi, Mama,” she said softly as she stepped over to her mother. 

“What did you come up with today?”

Nelka held out the one copper coin she maintained.

“One!?  One coin!?  I send you up to the merchant’s district and you come back with one measly copper?  That’s not enough to feed you or your sister!” 

“I’m sorry, Mama, I-”

In one motion, Kalah stood and slapped Nelka.  The location smarted and stung, but she held her ground. 

“Dumb girl,” Kalah grumbled as she sat back down and took a swig from a bottle of foul smelling alcohol.  “Should’ve left you in the Deep Roads.  Rica!  Where’s supper!?”

Rica trotted over to the table with a plate that was almost empty.  “Here, Mama.”

“Is this it?”

“That’s all we have.”

Kalah took another drink before picking up the slice of bread and started munching on it. 

“Don’t just stand there,” she snapped.  “Go do something useful!” 

Rica and Nelka scurried into the next room, where the latter collapsed on her cot.  Rica came to her side. 

“Sis, let me see that.  Let me see your face.”

The skin around her casteless brand was bright red and burned at the touch, making Nelka let out a yelp. 

“She got you good.  I’m sorry.”

“What about you?”  The way Rica was sitting, it was clear she’d been given a few whips to the back earlier in the day.  Every movement was methodical after that, in order to make sure the injuries didn’t hurt more than they already did.

“I… let’s just say that today wasn’t a good day.”

“I’m sorry, Rica.”

The girls sat, silent, save for the rumbling of their bellies. 

 

The next day, Nelka and Rica arose, ready to begin their work for the day.  Nelka was heading back up to the merchant’s district; maybe she’d have better luck today.  Kalah made it clear that she’d better come back with more success than the day before.

“Nelka!  If you bring back one measly coin again, it’ll be a lashing!  I think you’re due for a lashing anyway, actually…”

“Yes, Mama,” Nelka replied dutifully as she exited the apartment. 

She hardly expected someone to meet her there, however.  The same thief as yesterday stood against the wall beside the door.

“What do you want?”  She snapped.

“I… I wanted to say thank you,” he replied.  “You didn’t have to help me yesterday.  You didn’t even have to leave without rearranging my face.”

“Yeah, well, you’re welcome.”

“And I overheard all that.  I’m sorry I got you in trouble.”

“I would’ve been in trouble no matter what I brought home.”  Nelka shook her head.  “Hopefully you made better use of the coin than my mother would have.”  After a pause, she added, glaring, “How do you know where I live?”

“I pay attention.  Seriously.  I wasn’t following you, I just saw you head in there last night after you knocked me to the ground.  And I wanted to see if you could help me with something.”

“Now you’re asking me for a favor?  After I gave you half of my earnings?”  Nelka started to walk away, but the thief trotted up beside her. 

“No, no, not a favor.  But you’re tough, and you need money, right?  And you’re small.  We can work together.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Listen.”  He grabbed Nelka’s arm and stopped her from moving.  “We’re tiny and people don’t see us.  I sneak in places, steal what I can, and get out.  It’s not much, but it keeps me fed most days.  Some days.  Occasionally.  I don't have much luck begging - people are more likely to give donations to a little girl than they are a little boy.”

Nelka nodded.  He wasn’t wrong. 

“So we do what we have to.  And clearly, begging isn’t working for you so great either.  And since you’re way tougher than I would’ve expected, maybe we could help each other out.”

“What do you want from me?”

“You can be a distraction, or you can sneak in with me, or one of us can be a lookout, or something.  Depends on the place.  Then we split the goods.  If we work together, we can hit more places, bring in more food and coin – hopefully.”

Tapping her foot, Nelka weighed her options.  It couldn’t be worse than what she had going, unless she got caught, of course.  But execution didn’t seem all that terrible compared to her other alternatives. 

“Fine.  We’ll give it a go,” she obliged. 

The thief grinned and held out his hand for her to shake.  “The name’s Leske.  Nice to meet you.”

She took his hand.  “Nelka.”

“Let’s do this.”


	2. The First Job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leske and Nelka complete their first heist.

“Do you have a plan here?  Or are we just making this up as we go?”  Nelka asked as she followed Leske through the backstreets that led to the Merchant’s Quarter. 

“I do have a plan,” he explained.  “We go up to the Merchant's and look for a store that is busy.  We sneak in the back and nick their stuff, then pawn it off.”

“That’s… not a very specific plan…”

He shrugged.  “We play it as it goes.  That’s how I always do it.”

“But why do you need me to help?  If you’ve been doing so well for yourself?”

“Out of the goodness of my heart,” he teased.

Nelka rolled her eyes.  “Yeah, okay.”

“Truth is, I figure that if I have someone helping me out, I won’t have to run off empty handed so often.  Which means more loot, which means more money, which means food.”

“Alright, I get that.  Makes sense, I guess.”

As they spoke, they crossed into the Merchant’s District.  Passerby did their best to not see the casteless children that walked among them. 

Leske stopped and turned to face Nelka, inclining his head slightly to the shop behind him and to his left. 

“See that one?  We can crawl in the back.  I’ve been there before; there’s a back room that they almost never go in.”

Nelka wasn’t entirely sure this was a great idea, but of the several terrible possibilities that were present to a casteless dwarf, it seemed about in keeping with the rest of them.  As such, she was willing to follow along.

“Lead on.”

Leske obliged, heading down the block before turning and going behind the shops.  This area was less presentable, and only a few members of the servant caste occupied the space. 

When they arrived at their destination, they were pretty obscured and isolated from the servants.  No one could see them. 

“There,” Leske said, pointing at a small grate along the back wall.  “We climb through there, get into the room, grab some stuff, and get out.”

Nelka shrugged.  “Okay.”

Leske knelt beside the grate and started to fumble with the fastenings before pulling it off the wall and setting it to the side.  He crawled in and left Nelka behind. 

For a second she stood and looked around her and considered her options again.  She could just leave and be done with it. 

Clenching her jaw, she decided to hell with complacency and she followed Leske into the shop.

The vent was short, so it was only a few crawl-lengths before she was able to stand up in the backroom of the shop.  Leske smiled when he saw her.

“I thought you were going to leave me hanging,” he whispered.

“Not going to lie, I did think about it,” she answered.  “What are we grabbing?”

“Stuff casteless people can use.  Grab some cloth, and some of those hangers – they can melt them down for the metal.  Money if there is any.”

“Okay.” 

Nelka took a second to scan the area and was very careful in her movements as she picked up a few shirts and a bundle of cloth and tucked them under her arm.  Leske, however, was much more courageous.  With quiet steps he made his way further into the backroom and picked up larger quantities of items. 

Despite Nelka’s carefulness, as she picked up a shirt it scraped across a metal goblet and sent it clattering to the floor. 

“Wha’s that?”  Came the call as the door to the main shop flew open.

Hidden in the very back by the grate, Nelka was still hidden, even if she had been responsible for the noise.

But Leske was right in their path. 

“Who do you think you are, kid?  What are you doing?”

Nelka didn’t think before she acted.  She slammed into one of the shelves and sent it toppling over, smashing everything in its path. 

It was enough of a distraction that Leske was soon behind Nelka and pushing her toward the grate. 

“Go!”  He screamed and she crawled through the opening as fast as she could, before turning back to help pull her partner-in-crime along with his goods. 

Together, they raced through the backstreets, before stepping out into the main thoroughfare and trying to blend in. 

“That was…” Nelka panted as they slowed to a quick walk.  “That was…  I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

“Hey, it happens.  And we both got out alright, so it’s good.”

Nelka didn’t respond.  Her brain could barely process how close they’d come to getting caught.  Leske noticed how frazzled she was, and obliged her with silence as they made their way back to Dust Town.

Once they returned to the casteless streets, Leske bumped her arm.  “Come on, this way.”

She followed him again, this time to a small building, wherein several men were rummaging through items.  One looked up and smiled when he saw Leske.

“Hey, Leske,” he said as he walked over to greet the kids.  “Whatcha got today?”

“Some clothing and some metal scraps.”

Leske placed the items on the counter and the man looked through them carefully. 

“Not too bad,” he remarked.  “I’ll give you five copper for the lot.”

“Five?  That’s it?  We almost got caught.”

“Is that my fault?”

“No…”

The man held out five coppers and Leske begrudgingly took them.  Then, it was Nelka’s turn. 

“Hey, kid.  What’s your name?”  The man asked. 

“Nelka,” she answered.

“Nice to meet you, Nelka.  I’m Krifas.  And if anyone asks, this place doesn’t exist.”

“What place?”  She replied with a small smile.

“I like you.  I like this kid,” he said to Leske.  “So, let me see what you have.”

Like Leske had, Nelka placed her items on the counter.  She hadn’t grabbed nearly as many things as Leske had. 

“This is a good bundle of cloth,” Krifas said.  “Good for bandages.  The shirts are, eh, but the bundle is good.  Here’s five coppers.”

That was more than Nelka had scavenged in a single day in a long time.  She held out her hand to accept the coin and smiled. 

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.  You kids be safe now.”

Leske waved as they exited the shop.  “Thanks, Krifas.”

Back out on the street, Leske grinned.  “Thanks for saving me back there.”

“Huh?”  Nelka was still baffled by the feeling of five coppers in her hand. 

“In the shop.  You could’ve made a break for it, but you pushed over the shelf?  That’s what I’m talking about, partners.  Make it easier and we’re more likely to get out.  I’m just… thank you for doing that.  You could’ve just run, but you didn’t.”

“I made the noise.  It’s only fair.”

“Still.”

“Well… You’re welcome.  And thank you for bringing me along.” 

Leske laced his arm through Nelka’s as they moved back through the streets.  “I think we’re gonna be a pretty good team, salrocka.  A pretty good team indeed.”


End file.
